How has COVID-19 affected college enrollment/,/ and what makes a student successful on the path to a degree? Two recently published reports by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To&Through Project get at these questions, providing insights researchers hope can improve college outcomes, particularly among Chicago Public Schools alumni.
After Decades of Reform, Has Chicago Finally Learned How to Fix Education?
Some promising signs suggest the city may be turning around its troubled school system. It offers lessons for other struggling districts.
June 27, 2018 • The phone call Janice Jackson had been waiting for came in early December. She was going to be named interim CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). A protégé of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, she would be taking over the third largest school district in the nation. She was also getting the job she had predicted for herself since her days as a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A month after her appointment, the city closed the deal by dropping the word “interim” from her title.
There were some tough days for Alanna Barber’s kids in remote learning the past year.
Barber’s third-grade son, Sean, lost patience at times. She had to juggle Sean’s classes with her kindergartner’s first year in school. Barber ended up leaving her job as a school cafeteria manager in another district to stay home with her children.
So when Chicago Public Schools classrooms reopened this spring with safety protocols she felt comfortable with, Barber sent both kids back to in-person learning.
But through it all, was Barber ever concerned about this being a lost school year for her children?
Slightly fewer Chicago students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities last fall despite the pandemic s pressures but two-year institutions saw a troubling dip in both new arrivals and in students returning for their second year on campus.
A new report from the University of Chicago s Consortium on School Research shows that declines in community college enrollment and retention were steeper here than nationally and affected Black and Latino students more than their peers. The data also shows that Chicago Public Schools students enrollment in four-year institutions largely held steady and retention improved across racial groups even amid the pandemic s upheaval. Some local institutions saw enrollment gains of 30% or more increases the study attributes to decisive steps campuses took to support first-generation and low-income students amid the disruption.
Transition to high school becomes more troublesome because of COVID-19 newsday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.